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The Dixons - An Overview
Note: Click on any photo on the page to view a larger image version.
Hello friends and family both far and near. It is nice to look back and reflect on the year and this has been a good one for the Dixons. In a nutshell, the big news for our family this year was 1. Patrick returned safely home from Air Force deployment in Afghanistan, 2. Dan experienced some wonderful success with Universe Sandbox and 3. last, but not least, from Brittney and Patrick, we learned that we will be grandparents for the first time come February of 2012. Plus we enjoyed two wonderful vacations with our family.
NEWS BULLETIN! - Our grandson, William Patrick, decided not to miss this Christmas and arrived early on Dec. 21st. See photos and read about Will below.
During normal days, I do so enjoy my job as Sevis/Student Information Coordinator at Ball State University in the International Office. In my spare time, I enjoy walking the dogs, reading, playing Facebook games, especially CityVille, and doing a little gardening. Jim still builds and repairs computers for companies and individuals. In his spare time, he still loves to run, play tennis and watch TV. This year, in our local tennis tournament, he won the men's 55 doubles championship and was a runner-up in the men's C doubles.
We were fortunate to be able to enjoy not one, but two vacations with Daniel, Patrick and Brittney. You can read more about those below if you like. We hope the year has been good to you and yours as well and that you all have a very healthy, happy and successful 2012.
Click on any photo on the page to view a larger image version.
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| Peggy and Jim at Multnomah Falls in Oregon |
Patrick with Peggy and Jim |
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Mini Las Vegas Vacation
In May, Patrick volunteered to help out at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, NV for a month. He called us and said he had three days off the following week, so with very short notice we flew to Las Vegas and were joined by Dan from Seattle for a very fun 4 day mini vacation in Las Vegas. We walked through most of the casinos, rode the roller coaster at NY NY, went up the Eiffel tower at the Parisian, enjoyed the beautiful musical fountain shows at the Bellagio, spent one afternoon at Red Rock Canyon, and enjoyed a unique water show called Le Reve at the Wynn. We simply had a great time and the weather was perfect. Best of all was being with our family.
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| Family on the New York, New York Roller Coaster in Las Vegas |
Family at the Parisian Eiffle Tower in Las Vegas |
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Seattle Vacation
It had been awhile since we had been to Seattle so, this year in July, we all met in Seattle for a terrific 10 day vacation in and around Seattle. Besides walking and eating in Seattle, we ventured to Mt. Rainer. I had hoped to repeat the beautiful trail up the mountain to the ice caves I had accomplished when I was 18 (these melted away in the 70's). But there is more snow now in the spring, so the snow was piled up high around the parking lot of the Paradise Inn, so we ended up taking a rather adventurous snow shoe hike and ranger talk near the Inn.
After that, it was on to Portland, OR where we stayed downtown at the luxurious old Benson Hotel. We had perfect seats for the 4th of July fireworks on the water, visited the Portland Japanese and Rose gardens, and ate some wonderful food at unique restaurants and stands. On our second day, we drove out to explore the Columbia River Gorge, with its awe inspiring vistas and many waterfalls. On the third day, we drove to the Pacific and the famous Cannon Beach. It was chilly, but very beautiful. Then it was back to Seattle.
Jim left a couple of days early to participate in the Anderson Tennis Tournament where he won the men's 55 doubles Championship this year. I stayed and enjoyed being with Dan, Patrick and Brittney a little longer. The last day, we drove north to explore beautiful Whidbey Island where Brittney's great grandparents had been stationed and lived during WWII. Brittney had basically planned our itinerary for this trip and she did a brilliant job. We had the time of our lives.
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| Daniel and Patrick Showshoe Hike on snow covered Mt. Ranier |
Family hiking
on the lower slopes of Mt. Ranier |
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| Family in Portland Mt. Hood in Background |
Family on Cannon Beach |
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Daniel and Universe Sandbox
Our Daniel is still in the Emerald City of Seattle where the weather is mild and the living is interesting. Dan has hummingbirds that visit his feeder daily the whole year round and enjoys being with all the friends he has made there.
As you may remember, Dan developed a program called Universe Sandbox, a space/gravity simulation program. Originally he developed this program for himself, but it became such a passion for him and he thought it might be of interest to others, and decided to work on this project full time in 2010 and sell it through his website, universesandbox.com. It lets you create and destroy planets and galaxies, play with gravity, blow up stuff, and much more. The photo at left is Dan's booth at PAX where he demonstrated his program/game.
This year in April he released on STEAM, steampowered.com, to great success. Steam is the biggest online computer game distributor (it's like Apple's AppStore, but for games). He was quickly able to pay back all of his personal investment in the software and has hired two German programmers to rewrite and improve the program. With their help he plans to expand beyond Windows with a release for Mac and other platforms. These won't be released until sometime next year, but we are so relieved and happy about his surprising success. No one was more surprised than Dan himself, and he continues to pursue his passion while working from his apartment in Seattle.
In November, he took a trip to Europe with some of his Seattle friends and then spent a week with his German associates who are working on his program in Germany. He will be coming home for a brief visit with us at Christmas.
Article in Anderson Herald Bulletin Newspaper about Daniel.
In the photo to the left,
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| Daniel Dixon at a game in Seattle. |
Dan in a Santa hat |
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| Daniel Dixon | Dan working on his computer |
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Patrick and Brittney
Patrick and Brittney have had another eventful year. Patrick returned safely in February from his first Air Force deployment in Afghanistan. They took a trip to Europe to celebrate having made it through their first deployment. They visited London, Paris, Normandy, and the Loire Valley of France and had an amazing time. A few months later, we weren't too surprised when they Skyped us on the pretense of discussing our upcoming trip to Seattle, when in reality Brittney pulled up an over shirt to reveal a t-shirt that said BABY! Needless to say, we were very excited to hear that we will be grandparents soon! The baby, if the sonogram is correct, will be a boy – William Patrick – and he is expected on the 3rd of February, 2012.
Brittney and Patrick have been busy preparing the nursery for their new arrival and it has been fun to monitor the progress via Skype. Patrick undertook an idea to build a shelf completely around the room for our large Playmobile train. It proved to be challenging, but with help from Brittney and her mother it was completed in a few days' time and looks great. The rest of the room is coming together nicely and we are looking forward to seeing it completed (with baby!) when we visit after William arrives.
We were very pleased and happy to see and be with them when they came back to Indiana for Thanksgiving and a baby shower for William. Now, we can't wait until February when we will finally get to meet and hold William in our arms. We look forward to seeing all of them regularly thereafter via Skype, along with many more visits. All in all, Patrick and Brittney are doing very well and we are all extremely excited about William's arrival!
Well, William Patrick did not want to miss Christmas this year and arrived 6.5 weeks early. Mom and Baby and Dad are all doing well. Mom even got a helicoptor ride to Lubbock, TX where they have a better neonatal unit. Will arrived healthy, but needed to stay in the hospital a little to get his breathing and eating actions working better. As my favorite Christmas song says, "The best gift that I ever got, was a tiny newborn child." Sung by Barbara Streisand in her album, The Best Gift.
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| Brittney and Patrick in Las Vegas |
Patrick and Brittney looking over Cannon Beach |
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| Brittney and Patrick in front of Las Vegas Sign |
Brittney and Patrick after Baby Shower for William |
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| William Patrick arrived 6.5 weeks early 5 lb 4 oz - 18 inches long |
William Patrick healthy, but needing a little help with oxygen and food for awhile. |
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Our Pets
Well, our pets continue to flourish. Reesy Cup has fit into our lives very well and she and Brigit are fast friends. They are bonded and enjoy being together and playing each day, especially tug-o-war. We did decide to take the house back from the cats and banished the four cats to the basement, though with three large windows that look out at our patio and plenty of beds and all, they seem to be content and comfortable. We are really happy about the change.
And finally, it was an effort, but I did take in a sweet yellow tabby cat and a little later a sweet friendly calico kitten someone had dumped on our road. My neighbor, Judy, and I had them spayed and got their shots and finally found them a home together. I would love to have kept them since they were friendlier than three of my four permanent cats, but I do not want to become a hoarder. They finally went to a good home with two dogs. Also found a home for a dog this year as well.
We are trying our own TNR (trap-neuter-release) program since we had a feral mother cat and kittens show up on our front porch. I have several shelters for them, one heated, so if we can catch and neuter them all, they should be OK out around our home with us feeding them.
That is about all. Hope you all have enjoyed this synopsis of our year. We would love to hear about your year too. Blessed Be.
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| Brigit - 6 yrs | Reesy - 1.5 yrs |
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| Isis - 11 yrs. | Gaia - 9 yrs. |
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| Kali - 7 yrs. | Athena - 3 yrs. |
| Base Design and header by Bryant Smith |